The Warriors have not had their perfect teamthe idea with which they assembled a squad that, when the course began, seemed to return the Warriors to the category of applicants after going from playing five Finals in a row to staying two years without playoffs. The initial 27-7 unleashed triumphalism in the Bay… but the following has been a poor 21-19 in the following 40 games. A very decaffeinated section marked, of course, by injuries.
Klay Thompson did not return, after more than two seasons in dry dock, until January 9. Just before Draymond Green was injured and later, when the power forward returned, Stephen Curry fell, who will arrive in time for the playoffs, in principle. And perhaps to have some preliminary filming. That is the idea of some Warriors who have resigned themselves to the fact that their last objective of the regular season is to safeguard third place. Light years behind the Suns in the standings, the Grizzlies have also left them behind. And they defend this third place against the possible arrival of the Utah Jazz and Dallas Mavericks. Being third would allow them to go to the side of the Grizzlies in a hypothetical semifinal of the West, and avoid the very favorite Suns until the Conference final.
The Warriors’ options happen because Curry, Klay and Green, their eternal big three, be fit when the playoffs come around. It’s obvious. But there is a player who will not be sure. One that has not been able to have minutes throughout the season and that was one of the wild card most important that could be guessed in Steve Kerr’s template: James Wiseman has already been officially ruled out for the remainder of the season. He will not play until the next one and his second NBA campaign will be a blank year.
For the Warriors, it’s bad news. Wiseman (2.13) was the only truly big rotation, and a reinforcement was not sought before the closing of the winter market. That made us think that in the Bay they had him on the track before the playoffs. Now, there are hardly any worthwhile free agents: Willie Cauley-Stein, who went through the team two seasons ago and has not finished finding a place in the NBA due to his huge gaps in play and concentration, would be an option, but it hardly improves what already exists, not even as an emergency resource. The Warriors will go, except surprise, with Kevon Looney, Draymond Green’s minutes as center and moments of ultra small ball in which they make false five players like Otto Porter, the powerful rookie Jonathan Kuminga, the Serbian Nemanja Bjeliça…
Worse is the situation for Wiseman individually, of course. A few days after his 21st birthday, the number 2 in the 2020 draft has been left without being able to debut in his second year as a professional. He was injured in April, almost a year ago, and he missed the end of last season but in theory he should have returned in this one. Earlier this March, the Warriors sent him to their G League team in Santa Cruz and for what is normally a post-injury run-in cycle before he gets NBA minutes again. He played three games, averaging 17.3 points and 9.7 rebounds and was called up by the Warriors. In that trance of return, new discomfort in the knee stopped everything again and ended in this definitive end of his season with the idea that he will be in perfect condition when the next one begins.
Wiseman he played 39 games as a rookie, 27 as a starter. He averaged 11.5 points and 5.8 rebounds. He left glimpses of his outsized potential coupled with clear signs that he still has a long way to go, although some (very optimistic) believed that they could already have an effect on the Warriors similar to that of DeAndre Ayton on the Suns. Others, however, have always defended that the franchise should have exploited the market value of its young people to give present pieces to the prime that they still have Curry, Green and the return Klay. That future passes through Wiseman, through Jordan Poole (number 28 in 2019 and who is having a brilliant season) and the two rookies of this coursethe very promising Kuminga (7 in the draft) and Moses Moody (14), who is slower but has also left flashes that the most optimistic can cling to.
Wiseman has the added pressure of being picked, in that tricky 2020 draft marked by the pandemic, behind only Anthony Edwards and ahead of, for example, a LaMelo Ball (3) who has already been an all star this season.
